Jordan is tiresome
DEAR SIR — Many of the leftist Thatcher haters, and I include latter day revolutionists and worn out socialists here and in the UK, have no idea why they hate her. It is an article of faith based on myths; it is in the DNA.
They have been told that if you are a right thinking person there are certain non-negotiable attitudes to which you are obliged to subscribe: inter alia global warming, evil Israel and, of course, hate Margaret Thatcher.
Notwithstanding Z Pallo Jordan’s shallow analysis of middle-class England (Thatcher’s legacy is a less generous UK society, April 11), it is tiresome and predictable.
For his information, the union movement of the day, especially the National Union of Mineworkers ( NUM) under Arthur Scargill, was the “enemy within” and it may be that certain unions occupy that same position here.
The truth is that her death is a timely reminder that the South African economy is more than 30 years behind the times and it is useful to compare SA 2013 with UK 1980.
When she took office the UK was on its knees under the thumb of the NUM and the Trade Union Congress who could strike, threaten non-strikers and cause violent damage at will; was subjected to Marxist rhetoric that was out of date even then; had a workforce with a culture of entitlement; and had suffered bad, inefficient, expensive non-service from staterun industries, which included telecoms, electricity, steel and air transport. More than a little similar to SA in 2013.
With vision and tenacity she dealt with those problems (still stifling SA’s economy) with: new labour legislation, which, inter alia, made unions responsible for damages, made them hold transparent strike ballots and banned third-party strikes; privatisation, which invigorated service and competition and restructured the state balance sheet; and deregulation and reduced taxation, which destroyed the old-boy system and opened up the economy to those who wanted to work and take risk. Her main domestic legacy was to change people’s perceptions that the state owed them a living. Proof of this is that the Labour Party never dared to commit electoral suicide by reversing the main changes she engineered. She analysed the problem, identified the solutions and implemented them without fear or favour, ignoring political considerations and objections from cliques with vested interests, a skill sadly lacking nowadays.
On the world stage she contributed greatly to the defeat of Russian communism, literally freeing millions of people from physical, mental, political and economic slavery in Eastern Europe, where no wonder she is still a hero. Look anywhere for a politician of Mrs Thatcher’s stature today, and you will see only pygmies by comparison. Sydney Kaye Cape Town